Missions
Missions is a multiplayer gametype. The Abyss is the name of the storyline covered in the Missions downloadable content available for Black Hearts: Cataclysm and Black Hearts: Darkness Rising online multiplayer. It covers the story of a stranded SpecOps team in a secret Kelim Hierarchy fortress known as the Abyss. Development At the end of Black Hearts: Bounty Hunters, Q Games released a statement discussing the new multiplayer system that would be present in their latest project (Cataclysm). Apart from discussing new gametypes and mechanics, a Q Games spokesperson stated, "...next game will offer players that are connected to the network lots of downloadable content that players can tune in to if they want more Black Hearts action, possibly including levels." In January 2013, Q Games confirmed rumours that it would be a gametype known as "Missions" and that it would follow a fresh new story unrelated to the campaign. During a beta test of Cataclysm multiplayer, Q Games stated that the story would feature Captain Enriquez, as well as the Kelim Hierarchy, from Bounty Hunters. The day before the release of Cataclysm, a gameplay demo showed the name "The Abyss" in the multiplayer menu. Finally, upon the release of Cataclysm, players got a chance to see what the Missions were really about. Gameplay Missions, along with other free downloadable content, have to be downloaded/updated from the Q Games lobby. To play a mission, the player must initiate a match in the online lobby. Then, other players can join or the player can simply start it themselves. This procedure is required because the Cataclysm engine sees missions as online matches (this is inherited by Darkness Rising). Missions in Cataclysm had a beginning and ending cutscene, and none in between. They played like regular deathmatch or other gametypes, models and environments the only thing that changed. In Darkness Rising, missions have detailed cutscenes in-game, and play almost like levels in the campaign. Plot Cataclysm The story of Missions begins with Captain Enriquez and his SpecOps team (comprised of Lieutenant Black, Saverio and Commando Fennet) being deployed to destroy a Hierarchy doomship. The team manages to detonate charges in the doomship's core, which (according to science officer Saverio) tears a hole in the fabric of space. The team's shuttle ends up in an unknown area of space, floating until they land at what appears to be an orbital Kelim Hierarchy fortress. The SpecOps, determined to find some escape vehicle, sneak into the fortress. Inside, they find out that the name of the fortress is the Abyss, and that the deeper levels contain something that the Hierarchy locked away. The Hierarchy is alerted of their presence, and the SpecOps are forced to fight waves upon waves of guards. The SpecOps manage to seal themselves in a tower, but know the Hierarchy plans to send another attack to destroy them. By a sliver of luck, Black discovers that the dungeons are located in the tower they control. The team decides that if they free the prisoners, they might be able to rally an army to march to the docking station of the fortress. Facing little resistance from dungeon guards, the SpecOps free the prisoners, all of the same species (nicknamed Demonkin by Saverio). Enriquez manages to explain to the prisoners that they are going to attempt a takeover of the fortifications. The Demonkin are revealed to be extremely violent, eating their Hierarchy captors alive. Black shrugs this off as simple revenge. After arming the Demonkin, the team unseals the tower, and finds that much of the Hierarchy forces are missing. Confused, Saverio urges the team to look for the black box, as well as a map of the facility. Facing a few Hierarchy stragglers, the SpecOps and Demonkin fight their way to the Abyss's Keep, where they discover that the Hierarchy has created a dimensional black hole in order to bring soldiers from a different dimension. At this point, Gha'an Thul, the leader of the Demonkin, reveals that he and the Demonkin are the soldiers of the other dimension, one where the Demonkin have conquered the galaxy. After they were deemed too powerful by the Hierarchy, the black hole was closed and the prisoners contained in the high security fortress. At this point, the Demonkin begin an attack on the team, but Commando Fennet manages to turn on the Keep's auto defenses, allowing the team to escape to the docking bay. At this point, Lieutenant Black urges Captain Enriquez to escape the Abyss immediately and try to call for reinforcements later. However, Enriquez understands that the Demonkin are heading to the black hole, and with the Hierarchy mysteriously missing, nothing would stop an army "from Hell itself" rising up and leaving the Abyss. Enriquez consults Saverio, who assumes that the Hierarchy must have spatial reactors in place to keep the black hole from consuming the entire base. He predicts that damaging these spatial reactors will undermine the foundation of the black hole and cause it to collapse in on itself. Enriquez then heads back with a reluctant team to the Keep, to find the location of the spatial reactors. The team fights through Demonkin guards stationed at the base. At the Keep, the team is ambushed by Yusrin SpecOps, who reveal the Hierarchy have abandoned the base due to the escape of the Demonkin, and the Yusrin have been sent here to seal the facility. The commander, Arales, decides not to kill the humans for now, considering that their immediate mission was to contain the Demonkin. As the Yusrin rush to the lower levels (and presumably the spatial reactors), the SpecOps team secretly follows them, arriving at an epic battle between the Yusrin and Demonkin outside of the black hole. Enriquez rushes and plants charges on the four spatial reactors keeping the black hole alive, but realizes that Demonkin, now swarming out of the black hole, block the escape paths. As a last, futile attempt, he detonates them, and the explosion consumes the entire Abyss fortress. Darkness Rising Enriquez wakes up to a floor full of bodies of Demonkin. He finds a wounded Saverio, who tells him that Black and Fennet didn't make it. The Yusrin SpecOps, badly injured, appear, and demand what happened, to which Enriquez explains what happened. Saverio, then seeing that the black hole is missing, is initially cheerful, but then realizes something which changes his face to a grim expression. Enriquez asks him what the problem is, and he explains that explosion was incomplete; that one spatial reactor is still online. Enriquez then asks him what that means, and Saverio replies, "If the detonation was incomplete, sir, that means the black hole couldn't have gone in on itself... It means it must've grown." Enriquez then looks at the viewing screen and sees a swirling mass of darkness surrounding the Abyss. Saverio doesn't understand why the Abyss doesn't crumple in on itself (considering it is now the core of a black hole), but tells all of the parties that they are trapped. The Yusrin SpecOps then see that they are detecting movement in the even lower levels, something not Hierarchy or Demonkin. The two SpecOps teams then call an uneasy, temporary truce for the time being, and make their way to the deepest levels, finding Hierarchy survivors and fighting remaining Demonkin. Saverio hopes that something didn't make its way into the Abyss during the explosion. As the party is descending, the fortress enters emergency mode, as the dock gates have been broken, and that tower is being ripped apart from the inside by the black hole. Alares commands the group to take a detour and manually activate the emergency shield mechanisms. Upon arrival, they find that the shields are already online, activated by the Mhijan station commander, Kam-Hni-Byl-Ktol. He claims that many of his troops have gone missing, and he cannot find their bodies. He decides to accompany them down to the lower levels. When they reach the subterranean chambers, the power of the facility is turned off because something has happened to the energy cell reactor. In the darkness, the group is ambushed by Reborn Hierarchy, but escape to the Keep. After Saverio gets the power back on, the group of stranded soldiers have a discussion over what to do, considering that they have nowhere to go.